Protection: The Sword and the Shield

Fear And Loathing

Great Hall, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Albus Dumbledore sat at the head table with a benevolent smile on his face. Everything had worked exactly as he had hoped. The presence of giants had been leaked to the right people and each side had quickly found someone to represent their cause in the media and in the Wizengamot. The two men chosen were exactly who Dumbledore had intended and so fit his plans perfectly.

Lord Foster Barton was obsessed with magical sentients. He regularly frequented the bordellos and strip clubs in Grimmauld Commons and rumor had it that he had, in his youth, tried to be turned into both a vampire and a werewolf before being stopped by his family and friends. He was a nutcase but he was perfect for Dumbledore's needs because the man was otherwise intelligent and well regarded.

Before the giant issue, his primary goal had been to close all the dragon reserves. He believed dragons to be sentient and was convinced that they would respect the Statute of Secrecy. He and the people that supported him would not allow the "rights" of the giants to be "violated" no matter the consequences to witches and wizards.

Of course for every extreme, there is the opposite and Lord Abraham Rosier represented that side. The man hated all "creatures", as he called them. Albus knew he considered the membership of Remus and Professor Flitwick on the Wizengamot to be an affront and the giant issue would be something in which he could pore all his angst.

Amelia Bones was about to be attacked on all sides. The fact that her boyfriend was a relative of one of the refugees would call her integrity into question, or at least Justin would make sure that it called her integrity into question. And through it all he would play the caring headmaster looking after the welfare of the individuals. Justin's job would be to make sure that at every opportunity, he sabotaged any attempt at compromise.

Albus knew it was imperative that he wrestled the Ministry back into acting for the greater good and not just the naïve whims of people who do not truly know any better. Tom was going to come back and he needed Britain to be ready. More importantly he needed Harry Potter to accept that his fate was sealed the night his parents were killed.

As far as Albus Dumbledore was concerned, Harry Potter died with his parents and all that was left was a tool to be used to advance the greater good for the wizarding world. His only regret regarding his decisions surrounding the boy was that he had not been more extreme and simply locked the boy in a Hogwarts basement and raised the child himself to fulfill his duty. He cursed his sympathetic desire to grant the child a childhood.

Instead he was forced to deal with a re-emerged Potter family. One that was falling to the dark. He had to somehow guide that family properly in the light. Young Harry had already made some troubling decisions and with the amount of power and influence he controlled, the light could not afford to lose him. Justin's plan to use Rubeus to help repair Hogwarts' reputation had been expanded by the headmaster and now he wanted to use the man to undermine Harry's support and lead the boy to him for proper guidance.

Harry Potter must be made ready to do his duty. Tom was still lingering and working to come back, and there was now a former follower of Tom's that had acquired the philosopher's stone and was likely building up his own dark aspirations. In addition the Bones, Longbottoms and a few other formerly light families had fallen to the dark and eliminated the old Dark families so they could take their place.

He had already formed a coalition of likeminded Lords that could see the dangers of running magical Britain the way Amelia seemed to be. The fact that she was regularly intimate with a Vampire was evidence enough for most of them. He put that to the back of his mind to focus. Hogwarts would be in the headlines again and it wouldn't be because of tragedy, incompetence or Harry Potter. He rose to address his students. He waved his hand and all the lights in the hall flickered. The students all calmed and looked at him.